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Santa Clarita Half Marathon 2014 Race Report

The numbers for those of you who don’t want the fluff:

Time 1:53:01

Overall 264/1449

Women 62/782

Age Group 15/133

I wasn’t originally planning on running this race but since Stuart was going to be running the full marathon I asked my coach if I could run the half. This race is dear to me because it is the first race I ever really trained for and ran back in 2006. Coach said I could race this so I was excited to go for a pace of 9:00/mile, a full minute below my goal marathon pace for Ironman Arizona. If it felt good I was going to push it a little more. Well, the first couple miles felt pretty good so I just kept going with the pace. Originally I just wanted to break 2:00 but once I got to about mile 5 I was hoping to catch the 1:50 pacer. I couldn’t quite catch him but I ended up running just over 1:53. I will take that!

After the race I jumped on my mountain bike and chased after Stuart who was still running. I found him right before mile 18 and made sure he had everything he needed and checked on how he was feeling. He was in the zone and needed nothing so I hung back on the bike and just followed him. I started meeting other running the race who really needed someone to talk to them to help get them through the last 6 miles. I ended up spending a chunk of time with one woman who was in from out of town to run. I essentially talked her ear off for the rest of the race and helped keep her aware of how she was in relation to other runners. I had so much fun!!! It is such a small and quaint marathon! I may have to go back and run it again next year!